[ILUG] looking for linux software people

[Ronan Waide]

On December 29, lbedford at lbedford.org said:
> what about when the contract has expired? If I've left Job A, then 
> there's not very much they can do about it. My understanding of EU law 
> (very sketchy as it is) leads me to believe that stuff like "You're not 
> allowed work on another helpdesk system for a year" is not legal, as it 
> infringes your personal right to work on whatever you want.

I've seen some discussion here on ILUG that indicates that such laws
do actually hold up under Irish law, and EU law can go take a hike
because the other thing you'll frequently find in such contracts is
that any dispute over said contract will be resolved within the laws
of Ireland. Now, I'm not a lawyer and all, and I have /also/ seen
discussion which indicates that not only are anti-competition clauses
not legally binding, but that the right to freedom of employment is a
statutory right, i.e. you can't sign it away and any contract that
requires you to do so is not valid.

It'd be nice if there was some legal type who'd stand up and offer a
definitive statement on this, but I suspect that a definitive
statement can't be made on it. Insert your own theories as to why this
is the case after the dotted line.

Cheers,
Waider.
-- 
waider at waider.ie / Yes, it /is/ very personal of me.

Zvi is entirely too amused by life for it to be Monday. Maybe it's Friday and
    my calendar is wrong.